


Currency

by cruentum



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Blow Jobs, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-23 22:45:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/931963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruentum/pseuds/cruentum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>summerpornathon 2013 entry. They ended up in the neon district when they'd exhausted their sleep and attention credit and didn't get anymore of either. Gwaine blames Merlin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Currency

**Author's Note:**

> written for challenge 4 of the Merlin summerpornathon 2013: Sleep.

he ads for the 24/7 clubs glittered in the odd neon twilight of the sleepless suburbs of the city. Gwaine sat over a drink and rubbed at his eyes as a girl shimmied along his thigh. He always went for the entertainment during the darkest hours, his fellow gamblers and losers giving the same dead-eye stares to the same girls.

He'd gambled high and lost higher. Sleep and words counted for currency here, and he'd exhausted his cashflow some two or so years ago.

"Hm?" Arthur asked, still wearing the fancy uniform and making do with sounds instead of words. He gestured with the glass behind the bar. Gwaine gestured _please and thank you_ back and got a refill for his troubles.

The music purred at background threshold, leaving just enough decibel for the quiet of the one couple on the dancefloor, the clink of glasses and the booming vowels of the man on the television.

He'd had months of _thanks but no thanks_ sleep where he wouldn't have to chase for some glances and some words when he'd met the kid. _I can do magic_ , the kid had sworn, and they'd gone around a circus freakshow. He'd got him to perform in the seediest clubs in the neon district. He'd stood outside and shouted for the sensation, the _no tricks, no gaffes, no special effects_ magic shows. Where attention was currency, they were golden.

The kid had been great at magic and better at talking dirty, cock in his mouth or not.

Gwaine threw back the drink and held his glass out to Arthur again, quietly waving for more, as the couple on the floor shuffled another round to a repeat of the same instrumental tune. 

He'd gambled on Merlin's arse when he'd been tits over heels for the nights he'd spent spreading his cheeks with his hands, face in the pillow, and Merlin's cock squeezing into his hole. Then not-sleeping had been a choice. It wasn't now. Where attention was currency, going broke meant repaying all debts for the rest of that existence.

 _We can make it big_ , Merlin had said. And _I know what I'm doing_ , Merlin had said. _Destiny,_ Merlin had said, and Gwaine had been the sucker who'd lapped it up like a lollipop in the desert.

He had his hair for a bit of flair now, but had to roam the streets and wait for others to draw him in, their voices soaking into him when nothing got out and no chance to just stop, close his eyes and not exist for a while. They all ended up in the neon district, where the lights distracted from all they had been and all they weren't now.

Merlin sat next to him. He'd started coming a while ago. He gestured with his glass and played some magic trick with his fingers. He always sat too close, his thigh always touching Gwaine's, his hands dropping the cards far too often, until he was on his knees in front of Gwaine's stool, face buried in Gwaine's crotch.

Merlin mouthed at the fabric and got his tongue into the creases, this night and every night this week. He got the zipper down and his tongue through the slit, ran it over Gwaine's bare cock. 

Arthur poured Gwaine another drink and the couple shuffled on the dancefloor. Gwaine paid a little of his attention to everything, and Merlin had his mouth around Gwaine's cock, mind, but fucked if Gwaine gave him even an ounce of the sweet A.

Merlin sucked, and Gwaine fucked his cock into the hole he provided and came, but he never looked down, never looked across when Merlin slunk out of the bar.

Attention was the currency, and even if he never slept another minute in his life, Merlin wouldn't get one bit of it. The neon ads filtered in and flickered across the bar just before the door closed. He watched them go and wanted to close his eyes for just a moment. He couldn't.


End file.
